A Guardian of the Light
by deadlynightfall
Summary: A collection of stories and drabbles about my hunter, Királynö (queen in Hungarian), an Awoken Nightstalker with a dangerous secret. OC x Mara Sov pairing. Mild language, implied sexual themes.
1. 001 introduction

"Guardian? Guardian? Eyes up, Guardian." My eyes flicker open, hands curling open and shut. "Guardian... it worked, you're alive! You don't know how long I've been looking for you." Lightning crackled in the black sky, interrupted periodically by loud peals of thunder. It was true, I was alive - how, I didn't know. A loud, alien cry pierced the sound of the oncoming storm.

The voice sounded urgent. "This is fallen territory." I looked up. Fallen? What was the little voice talking about? Surely this was all a joke. I wasn't really back from the dead and hearing a disembodied voice, and surely this was just punishment for misdeeds in my former life. Surely, this was Hell. I looked around at the rusty, abandoned cars, covered in snow. Wasn't Hell supposed to be hot? "Come on, Guardian. I didn't bring you back so you could die again." I look at the little floating cube that the voice is coming from.

As I try to form words, I cough violently. It sounds urgent still. "I'll answer all your questions once you're safe," it says, trying to nudge me forward. How it knew what I was thinking, I wasn't sure. But this little light seemed to know what it was talking about, so I followed it.

"I'm a Ghost," it states, "actually, now I'm your Ghost." Ghost? What was that? A tiny little robot with the power to resurrect the dead? Come on. I coughed some more trying to voice my disbelief. The ghost was having none of it, trying to push me forward. The alien cries got louder. I took a step forward.

The ghost led me out of the frozen field and into the wall that cut the land like a scar. "Quiet. The Fallen are right above us," it says, as an alien figure skitters away. I couldn't speak if I wanted to. I was angry - couldn't this ghost have let me rest in peace? Now I was running from some unseen threat, lost and confused. Not to mention _cold._ Wherever I was, it was cold, and my ears were going numb. At least it was a little warmer inside the wall. But it was dark, and the ghost appeared, floating away from me.

"Another one of those hardened military systems… and a few centuries of entropy working against me." I looked around nervously. I couldn't see anything, just rough shapes, but then old lights flickered on, and more alien forms scattered, afraid of the light.

Nearby, a gate opened, and Ghost, I had decided to call it, floated over toward it and said, "I found you a weapon. Quick, grab it!" I wasn't going to argue, the alien shrieks piercing the calm before the storm didn't exactly give me a choice. By the time we break free of the wall, rain is pouring from the sky in torrents, and within minutes, I am soaked to the bone, trying to defend myself against the "fallen".

Somehow I knew how to use this gun, and I knew that it was the only thing protecting me from another grave. Why was I fighting if I wanted to rest? I let the gun fall to the floor. Ghost hovers around me, puzzled. "What are you doing?" I cough and splutter, choking to life. "I don't want to fight," I murmured shakily at the little light, my throat cracking. "You have to," Ghost cried. "I brought you back for a reason. You are a Guardian now – born of the Light. You have to fight."

"I don't want to. I was just fine being dead. You," I paused, watching the tiny robot, "little light, why couldn't you find someone else?" It sighs, frustrated. "There was no one else." It nudged my hand toward the abandoned automatic rifle. "Please. The world needs you," it pleaded, blinking. " _I_ need you." I picked up the rifle, sighing.

"I'm only doing this because I don't want to fall victim to an enemy I don't even recognize." The ghost replies, "Good enough," and promptly disappears. "Don't worry, I'm still with you," it assures me, and I start forward again.

We make it to the remains of an old jumpship, and the ghost appears from nowhere, scanning the ship. "Will it fly?" I ask, watching it. It looks at me, its parts whirring and conveying pride. "I can make it work." Of course, somehow I believed this little light, as it clicked and whirred above my head, I felt almost peaceful. This ghost would keep me safe.

"It won't warp to other planets, but it'll get us to the tower," Ghost says, beaming me up into the ship. "Come on, let's get you home."


	2. 002 love

I liked to think of the Tower as my home, that is, until I met her. She was the light the Traveler could only dream of creating, the only thing that kept my Darkness at bay. She was what I fought for, the one thing that kept me going in a relentless fight against forces much stronger than the one man army I was. In moments of danger, I found myself praying to the Travelver that I might see her again before I should die again, for good. Some fates just couldn't be corrected for.

She thought of me only as a loyal servant, a Guardian whose Light had pushed the Darkness back toward whence it came. To her, I was no more than a ghost, a reminder to others that her will was one to be followed without question, to be heeded without protest. To her, I was just another pawn. But to me, she was my world.

I sought to protect her kingdom from those who would see her end. I could not protect her from anything but the ravenous Wolves who had betrayed her court, her trust. I hunted them down with a fierce hatred that frightened Ghost, and spurred me onward. Ever questing, following orders, carrying out bounties, I was blinded by her countenance. Her voice came to me in moments of triumph, praising my deeds. Only I could ever hear her. She was never really there.

Kalimar called this obsession, called it idiocy. I called it love. It was this love for the Queen of the Reef that forged a friendship with her emissary, Petra, a friendship that would prove with time to be a strong bond, as loyal as Variks himself. The Fallen had purred with pleasure upon my visits, paraded me about after I had triumphed over Skolas, Kell of Kells. After that, I was untouchable. I was invincible. My armor was colored to represent the very web Mara Sov had spun, upon which my heart was captured, upon which she feasted for sustenance. For her, I was a pawn. For me, she was my sun, my moon, and all the stars in between.

Poetry wished only to be as beautiful as she was, her words as though they were made of honey and venom all at once. She poisoned me slowly with her song, and I was left wanting more. Nothing would ever be enough.

Her brother's eyes pierced my skin, left burning welts of hatred. He knew, oh, how he knew of my unrequited love, and how he hated me for it. I knew I was not worthy. I never would be. But the hope that I would prove useful kept me going. Her needs were all I had to satisfy, her wants and whimsies my very command.

I had forsaken the Traveler for her. I had forsaken the very thing that had brought me back, the very thing that kept me breathing in a world that could have left me rotting in the cold. But it was all I could give. I had nothing left, only my ragged breaths as blood poured from my wounds. My ghost would haunt the Reef, I told the little light, who hovered and pestered me with its blinking and chatter. _"Nonsense, Kiralyno. You're going to make it,"_ it said, _"I've sent for help. You won't die on my watch."_ But I was determined, watching things grow dim as the world folded in on itself in grey, fuzzy knots. Everything was a haze of regrets and dreams denied. I clamped my hand tighter around the pain, throbbing and hot. Blood soaked my gloves, and all I could see was her face. Send a transmission, I whispered, to the Queen's emissary, outer asteroid belt. Vestian Outpost. I'm dying, I thought, I'm dying and she will never know. It was almost too much to bear, as I coughed and spluttered and fell to the floor. My eyes grew dim as the Captains circled around me. Ghost was hovering close, relaying my message. Tell her. Tell her now, before you're gone for good and all you've done is history. Make it tangible. She will know.

Tell her, I whispered to Ghost, tell her it was all for her. Everything I did, everything I would have done... was for her. Tell her that her face gave me hope, her voice gave me reason, and all the poetry of the Golden Age couldn't describe my love for her. Send it, marked urgent, I coughed, clenching hands grabbing for the last strings that held me to this world. Send it, Ghost. Send it, and get out of here before the Fallen capture you. The strings wrapped around my wrists like veins, tying me to a world in which I couldn't survive without her. I tugged on the strings.

They broke.


	3. 003 light

Light, Ghost told me once, was what brought me back from the dead. The Light of the Traveler, which bathed the last city in its glow, had created the Ghosts to bring back Guardians to protect the realm from the scrying eye of the Darkness, the Traveler's sworn enemy. This Darkness was an enemy that the Traveler could no longer fight, and an enemy that Guardians had to face alone.

Light, Ghost said, was intangible. There was no measure or way to quantify the thing. It simply was. What the Light was almost ascendant, an ethereal "being" that fought the Darkness for centuries and brought life to the Traveler. The Traveler created the Ghosts, each containing a shard of Light, which gave them the power to bring life where there was none.

Light, the other Guardians told me, infused itself with my very being, right down to my armor, giving me the strength to push back the Darkness. I, like so many others before me, was born of the Light, given a chance to fight for a life no one else had fought for before. This chance would not be wasted, I decided, the first time I set foot in the Tower. This chance would be used to do something great. I had never aspired to much in my past life, at least, not that I had known of, but I would in this life.

I would become legend.


	4. 004 dark

The Darkness was a force of evil that pressed upon the last city's walls and attempted to end the Traveler once and for all. The Guardians sought to prevent that end, fighting every minute with guns and grenades and super powers bestowed upon them by the Light itself.

Királynö fought the Darkness with her bow, void arrows taking down even the fiercest of enemies with its venomous tether. She fought every waking minute to protect the last city, though she knew none of those who lived within its walls. She knew only the Guardians, and very few of them at that. But they were strong, capable warriors that she admired. The Guardians lived in the Tower, a large building that rose to meet the very clouds that surrounded the Traveler, which could be seen from almost any point in the central plaza.

This time, the fight was in the Cosmodrome, in old Russia. Ducking behind a few rocks, Kira reloaded her hand cannon as quickly as she could muster before leaving cover to shoot down a vandal. She could smell him from here, malodorous cape and all. His wire rifle was no match for the hand cannon she packed, fitted by Banshee-44 himself.

She decided, shooting down a shank, that something had to be done about the increasing number of Fallen infiltrators here. "Ghost," she summons, and he appears, scanning the area. "There's a Fallen skiff headed this way. If you take down the enemies that are onboard, that would likely stop the infiltrations for a while." Kira nods, and Ghost disappears.

The skiff is headed towards her as she reloads her weapon. Then she holsters her gun, readying her rocket launcher. This would be more than enough firepower. She took aim, firing the weapon right before the Fallen dropped from the ship. The blast was enough to knock the Fallen from the ship, bodies hitting the ground with enough force that they would have been dead on impact.

"Good job," Ghost murmurs in her ear, and she nods. "Just doing my job."


	5. 005 rot

"If we don't get your wound checked out soon, you're going to lose that arm," Ghost chides, and Királynö ignores him. The arm was useless anyway; all it did was hold her gun steady. She could aim just fine without it. And at the very least, it wasn't her throwing arm. She grabbed a grenade from her belt, pulling the pin and tossing it among a group of Hive acolytes. The grenade exploded, taking three acolytes with it, whom exploded into fiery shreds.

"Send a transmission," Kira barks, "call Kalimar. Tell him I need him here as soon as his warp drive will get him here. Bring a medical kit." Ghost flickers into her peripheral, blinking. "I don't know if he'll get the message when we're this far down," he says.

"Try anyway," Kira says, and readies her weapon. Clearing out the Temple of Crota was proving to be more difficult than she had been led to believe. Still, she had been well prepared, that is, until a cursed thrall had exploded a bit too close, pieces of its body lodging itself in her arm as she instinctively covered her face. A stupid move on her part, she was wearing a helmet for a reason, and now her arm was useless, hanging limp by her side as she tried to fight off the oncoming swarms of thrall and acolytes.

Now she couldn't move her arm, let alone feel it. She thanked the Traveler that it was numb, because the pieces of thrall were probably poisoning her slowly. "Damn it," she cried, fumbling to reload her hand cannon, "I need help here! Ghost, go back up to the surface, send that transmission!" Kira clicked the barrel shut, firing off two rounds into an acolyte. Ghost was reluctant to leave her alone. "I'm surely going to die if you don't go," Kira said, which was the tipping point for Ghost, who then disappeared.

She grabbed another grenade, pulling the pin out with her teeth and lobbing it towards the Hive. Hopefully the void wall would keep them away from her for a little while. She leaned against her rocky cover, sighing deeply. She grabbed her arm, trying to assess the damage, and winced, drawing in air sharply. "Worse than I thought," she muttered, fingering her last grenade. She didn't want to use it if she didn't have to, but she hadn't brought any throwing knives, and she only had a few smoke bombs.

Suddenly, she had an idea. She grabbed a smoke bomb and stood, tossing it at her feet. As it exploded, she grabbed her gun and ran. She didn't stop running until the Hive were far behind, and she kept running still. She was halfway to the surface when Ghost appeared, exclaiming, "Don't do that! When I saw that you were gone, I thought the worst had happened."

Kira chuckled half-heartedly, gripping her arm. "Sorry, Ghost." She slowed to a walking pace for a moment, catching her breath. "Did the transmission go through?" Ghost nods. "Kalimar said he'd be here to pick you up in about twenty minutes. He was already on the Moon, patrolling, apparently."

"Good," Kira replied, settling onto a rock outside the temple. She'd had to wait longer for help before, so when Kalimar beamed her onto his ship, she was thankful that he was nearby. "You've definitely saved my ass more than once," she told the broad-shouldered titan as he pulled chunks of thrall out of her arm. The sting of disinfectant was almost more than she could bear, and she grit her teeth hard, fingers clenching shut around her knee. He was light-hearted and easygoing, nodding and smiling softly as he bandaged her arm.

"You're going to be just fine. You called me just in time, though, I was about to head back to the Tower." He clipped the gauze and taped it down. "And this arm of yours, whew. You're lucky. Count your blessings that you get to keep it," he said. "You'd be a lousy hunter with just one arm." Kira chuckled, slowly flexing the fingers on her injured arm. They moved, but barely. That was a good sign.

"Thanks, Kalimar."


	6. 006 break

Királynö had never known her breaking point until that fateful day. She had just traveled to the Vestian Outpost to meet with Petra, who had become her close friend over the past year that Kira had been serving the Reef, and subsequently, the Queen. Petra was in shambles, and she could barely hold back her tears. "She's gone," she stuttered, wiping her eyes. "T-the Queen… the entire Royal Fleet… even Prince Uldren. Gone."

Kira instinctively clenched her fingers into fists, and then uncurled them, calming herself. "Petra," she began, "What are you talking about?" She might have already known, the meeting she witnessed with Eris and the Vanguard had told her almost everything she needed to know. Oryx had destroyed the entire Awoken armada in one fell swoop. The one who claimed to be King only needed to fire once.

"The Queen sent out the entire armada to destroy the Dreadnaught," Petra muttered, "She and her brother went along to make sure the deed was done. The Queen…" she sniffled. "She used her power to summon projectiles to fire against the Dreadnaught. They didn't even scratch the surface." Kira blinked, urging Petra on. "Then the Dreadnaught fired back, and the blast killed everyone in the vicinity. The Galliot X-1 was destroyed, along with the Crows and the entire armada."

Királynö felt her heart sink. There was no way. It wasn't possible. The Queen had to have escaped somehow. "She didn't use an escape shuttle?" Petra shook her head. There was no time, she said. The blast had destroyed everything within seconds, the armada and the Crows tried outmaneuvering it, but they were caught in the shockwave, torn to shreds.

"Excuse me, Petra. I'll talk to you soon." Kira found herself wandering away from her friend, summoning Ghost to bring her ship around. She needed to get out of here as soon as possible, as soon as she could without drawing attention to herself. Kira thought of all the ways that the Queen could have survived, but none of them fit Petra's story. Mara Sov was gone.

As soon as Ghost beamed her onto her ship, she set course for the Tower, and turned on autopilot. She held it in as long as she could, clenching her fingers into fists and gritting her teeth. "It's not true," she murmured, leaving Ghost concerned but silent. As they began to warp towards the Tower, she left the pilot's seat and hid in the cargo bay.

She cried the entire way back to Earth.


	7. 007 heaven

Heaven was an intangible concept for Királynö. She imagined it as shining lights and bright, fluffy clouds, much like Golden Age literature had described the place. She didn't give much thought to the idea ever, she rarely had time to sit down and think. But when the Queen summoned her, she had a taste of what the concept was.

Heaven was imagining those arms around her, that silken, honeyed voice purring in her ear. It was feeling those soft, rosy lips against hers. She never did, but she could pretend that the words the Queen spoke were for her ears alone, soft and sweet nothings between the two of them. Dreaming of the Queen was something Kira saved for when she was alone in her small apartment, resting between raids and patrols.

Heaven was envisioning those three little words spilling from rosy lips, soft gasps and purrs filling the space between the two Awoken. She imagined fervent kisses, "The Queen has need of your… assistance…" and teeth leaving marks on throats. When the room got too warm for Kira, she would turn on all the fans in her house and take an icy cold shower. Sometimes that helped.

Heaven, as Kira had come to know it, was serving Mara Sov in the only way she could, completing bounties, defeating Skolas. The Queen's command was Kira's wish, and she imagined those nimble fingers in her hair, tugging until Kira couldn't stand it anymore, until she was begging for more. Her armor and cape symbolized the one thing she could never say: she was in love with the queen of the Awoken.

Heaven was living in the Reef when bounties became long tours and patrols, raids on Wolf hideouts and eliminating every Captain and Vandal that stood in her way. Heaven was crashing down after the Queen had died. It was hearing from Petra that the Queen "would never admit it, but respected you very much."

Heaven had become hell.


	8. 008 away

Ghost was becoming worried. It wasn't like Kira to leave him alone for so long. She had said she would just be meeting her friend Kalimar for a sparring match, but it had been three hours and he hadn't heard a word from Kalimar's ghost. He hoped that the pair weren't up to any trouble.

Kira was sweating profusely, trying to block blows from the titan that was almost twice her size. It was proving difficult; Kalimar was fast without his armor to slow him down. He almost landed a punch to her chest, and she blocked, getting knocked backward in the process. "Woah," she huffed, recoiling, "that was some punch. Do you hit everyone you know like that?"

He laughs. "Only the people that piss me off. And of course, whenever the Darkness is dumb enough to get too close to me." Kira smiles, pulling the sparring pads off of her hands and sighing deeply. "Man, I'm glad we're friends, I would never want to get in a fight with you."

"Don't worry. I can't see us physically fighting about anything."

Kira wrings her hands and nods. "Good." She stretches and yawns slightly. "Hey, can you get your ghost to tell mine I'll be back home soon?" Kalimar shrugs and turns away, summoning his ghost. It blinks and whirs, relaying the message. "Thanks," Kira says, grabbing her things and draping her workout towel around her neck. "I'm gonna head out. I'll see you later. Thanks for the sparring match, I'm definitely going to feel this in the morning."

"Bye," Kalimar waves, and Kira leaves. The walk through the Tower is nice. It's late at night and she can just faintly hear the _woosh_ of planes passing overhead, transporting Guardians to and fro. She smiled a bit, wiping her hands and face with her towel. Nothing like a good workout to keep you fit for fighting the Darkness.

She arrives at her apartment and unlocks the door, met with a hovering, worried Ghost. "Where were you?" He asks, and Kira drops her bag of things unceremoniously on the bedroom floor. "Match went into overtime," she shrugged, heading into the bathroom and peeling off her clothes.

"You were gone for three hours," Ghost whined, as Kira turned on the shower and stepped inside. "I'm sorry," she said, pulling her long dark hair out of its bun and lathering it. "I didn't think we would have such a good time. Kalimar showed me his Sunbreaker hammer and I showed him my bow. I'll be ready against titans in the Crucible," she continued, rinsing off and turning the shower off.

Ghost whirred and clicked outside the bathroom, talking louder to compensate for distance. He didn't like to impose on Kira's privacy. "Well, I was worried sick," he said, and Kira, wrapped in a towel, pushed him out of her way as she went into the bedroom to find clothes. He hated when she did that, it made him feel much smaller than he knew he was, less important. "And you know I don't like it when you push me out of the way," he scolded.

Kira looked sympathetic, but her tone was insincere. "Then move out of the way." She pauses, pulling on her clothes and looking at Ghost. "Look, I'm sorry. I know you were worried. It won't happen again, next time you'll come with me. Now hush up, let's go to bed."

She crawled into bed and Ghost floated over towards her, resting himself on the nightstand. "Want me to set an alarm?" He asks softly, and Kira nods. "Sure. Just make sure it's not a loud one, I don't want to accidentally crush you trying to turn it off."


	9. 009 cut

Kira slid the blade of her knife across the palm of her hand; the sound of metal catching on flesh was like music to her ears. This blade was sharp. She tested the next one, and it made a similar noise. This one was sharp, too. She tested her last blade. It caught on her hand and tore the skin. As blood trickled from the cut, she flexed her hand, wincing slightly. "Ouch."

She set the throwing knife aside and went to the bathroom to bandage her hand. She'd have to sharpen that blade before she tried _that_ again. She rinsed the cut under warm water. It was shallow and superficial – it would heal quickly. She wrapped a piece of gauze around her palm, tightening it and taping it down. That would be enough. After all, she was only doing a light patrol today.

Kira turned the bathroom light off and took up her blade, sharpening it carefully. The sound of _kss, kss_ as she ran the metal blade against the sharpening tool was almost relaxing. She smiled a bit. She couldn't wait to test these babies on some poor soul out in the Darkness. She was always ready to toss a knife and practice her throwing arm.

"Ghost," she called when she had finished, "Are you ready?" Ghost appeared a few moments later, blinking. "I'm ready if you are," he replied. Kira began to shimmy into her armor, pulling on her boots. "Where do you want to go?" She asked Ghost, as she strapped on her utility belt and hung her grenades on its hooks. She sheathed her knives, looking at Ghost while she put her gloves on.

"You have a bounty to patrol Venus," he clicked, hovering quietly nearby. "Alright," Kira answered, making sure she had everything before she pulled on her cloak. "Let's go." Ghost nodded as best as he could, disappearing to call up Kira's ship. Kira left her apartment, locking the door. She pulled the hood of her cloak up, holding her helmet under one arm as she headed toward the Tower hangar.


End file.
